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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23631067">Soap &amp; Stains</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/blazingstar29/pseuds/blazingstar29'>blazingstar29</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Baby Blues [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Baby Driver (2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Families of Choice, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Team as Family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:42:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,376</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23631067</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/blazingstar29/pseuds/blazingstar29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Doc invited over Baby, Buddy and Darling for lunch. He didn’t expect to be fixing a whole in Babies heart, but here he is.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Baby | Miles &amp; Buddy | Jason van Horn, Baby | Miles/Buddy | Jason van Horn/Darling | Monica, Baby | Miles/Doc, Buddy | Jason van Horn/Darling | Monica</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Baby Blues [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660657</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Soap &amp; Stains</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/11551275">D-A-N-C-E_Live.mp3</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylphOfPaperPlanes/pseuds/SylphOfPaperPlanes">SylphOfPaperPlanes</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey all! This turned into a mini study of Baby and Doc. I wrote it whilst mainly listening to Sleeping at Last. This isn’t very long, but it took a lot of energy to write. </p><p>It is inspired by the work below by SylphOfPaperPlanes. There is a section where they explore the idea of Baby have a memory of this detergent his mom uses. I thought that was really interesting, and combined with a request for Doc/Baby comfort I thought I could make it work.</p><p>(Yeah happiness is not yet on the horizon for dear old Baby) </p><p>I hope you like it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Baby’s memories of his mom are less facts, more feelings, smells. Her hands were never cold, her hair was soft and long. She always used the same detergent. </span>
</p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">-</span>
</p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Doc invited Buddy, Darling and Baby for lunch. The masterminds thinking was that the kid needed stability. He needed family, unfortunately for Baby the only people on his side right now were criminals. They’ll make it work. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Doc stands by the rule that trust is a strong word, however it is not improbable. He trusted that Buddy and Darling wouldn’t pull any shit in his own home, not with Baby around. However, in the long term they wouldn’t be knowing this was one of his multiple houses in and out of Atlanta. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Pulling into the carpark, Doc exits his car without looking back at the rest of the company. This wasn’t how Kingpins worked, he didn’t have Sunday lunch with his lackeys. His lackey wasn’t meant to be a grieving barley adult either. Doc opened the front door and marched onwards, not out of rudeness. Just out of the fact he wasn’t meant to have these people anywhere near personal information. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Doc shook himself internally. He was doing this for is doe eyed driver who needed a helping hand. Baby just happened to be accompanied by Mama bear and her trigger-happy husband. The three filed into the kitchen, Buddy and Darling took a seat at the bar stools.Out of habit Baby sat on a chair off to the side. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“For Christ sake kid, we’re not talking shop. Take a seat.”Baby slowly took a seat next to Buddy. Methodically, Doc began to prepare four sandwiches. All the while, Baby looked restless. Eyes dancing everywhere. Like he was stuck between being elated and wanting to cry. At one stage Buddy tapped Baby’s hand three times, gently. A grounding technique Doc had observed the man doing it to Darling every so often when they had a new guy on the job. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">As Doc passed the plates out, Baby leaned forward. For once, he was without his glasses. The scars around his eyes were on full display. His light eyes were dark and unsettling. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“I need to see your laundry.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Doc was used to demands from authority, asking to see his property. The last person he expected the demand from was Baby.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“I don’t know what your looking for or why it’s in my laundry. But be my guest, follow me,” Doc walked on smoothly down the main hall. He gestured to the laundry room.Baby haltingly entered, as soon as he entered lunged for the detergents on the countertop. Manically he was unscrewing the different detergent bottles. Doc was flabbergasted, as were Darling and Buddy.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“Baby what are you doing?” Darling asked as Baby froze with a bottle in his hand. He turned to Doc, the intensity in his eyes was back.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“Where did you get this?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“A shop downtown, gets rid of bloodstains better than anything else.”Baby doubled over against the counter, sobs breaking through his body. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“You have it, oh my god you have it,” Baby choked out. He regained his composure, placing the bottle back. He started repeating the brand, muttering it over and over like he was trying to get it to stick. “I have, I have been looking for this soap for years. My uh, my mom used it. Makes sense now, the, the bloodstains and d-dad.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Darling’s eyes widened at the implication of abuse. She diffuses the tension in the room and guides Baby back to the kitchen, saying that he needed to eat or there’d be nothing left of him. No one noticed Doc stay behind in the laundry, opening a cupboard he found a supply detergent. In his line of work blood on his clothes was a regular thing. He had three unopened bottles sitting underneath the sink. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Pulling one out, he briefly stewed on Baby’s life. By eight years old his parents were dead in a car accident, leaving the kid with messed up hearing. Fast forward a few years and Baby was working for Doc. The rest is history, no one can catch the Spirit of 85’. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Doc wasn’t an unkind man, merely a businessman. But some tough medicine to swallow was that Baby wasn’t business. The kid could do business, act business. Hell, he could take it, he’d taken punches and life threats when the rest of the team left him behind. Never squealed, kept his mouth shut until someone got him out. But Baby was not the crack head criminals that the rest of the team made up. He was a fresh face kid who only just finished high school. His life experience was equally lower and higher than the average kid his age. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Baby had a body count of a different type, handled more guns, driven more miles. But he never had a girlfriend, never went to prom. Baby didn’t skip class to skip class, he skipped class because of a mistake he made. One that a good man would have sat him down and set him on a better path. But Doc wasn’t a good man. He made sure that Baby knew every second of everyday what he owed him. The kid was in debt before college, a dream now impossible. A job witch needed a name was now impossible. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">For the first time in a long, long time, Doc felt like a truly horrible person. Is this how Baby felt taking his measly cut? Is this what he meant by money that felt to dirty to use? </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Doc knew he was a bad person, he just never felt like a bad person.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">-</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">When Doc walked back into the kitchen, he felt ten years older. And judging by the way that the couple looked at him he must have looked it as well. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“Baby, come here.” Its frightened Doc how willingly he stood from the chair and walked towards him.Baby’s arms were slack by his side, the posture of a defeated man.White headphone cords weaved in and out of his shirt. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">With the ease of someone who had rarely done it before, Doc pulled Baby into a hug. He hoped the young man got the message. As he was sure this was comfortable for neither of them.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">-</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">Baby went to the laundromat with his mother once. She only washed her uniforms for a local café. A secret job for extra cash. To fund a dream whispered under covers when the lights were out. Where they would run away from the man who ruled their lives.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">Her dark blue uniforms swirled around and around. Baby watched his reflection distort in the glass. Behind him his mother sung a new song she was writing.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">Keep your head down,</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">Or they’ll know you fell</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">Don’t make a sound</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">They won’t help</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">Hide your matches,</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">They’ll soak them,</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">I could never catch,</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p2">
  <em>
    <span class="s2">The ball that all this stem.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2"><em>That was the last time he heard her sing.</em> </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">-</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Baby stood ridged as Doc wrapped his arms around him. Baby didn’t know how he felt about the other man touching him, but he couldn’t do anything to stop him. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">What happened next would rock Baby’s beliefs of the man for years to come. Doc pulled away and spoke very clearly, so Baby wouldn’t read his lips wrong.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">“I’m sorry Baby. For everything.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">And Baby knew, he knew what Doc meant.They were the same, the same way two strangers walking the same way down the street are the same. They started in different places, they’re going to seperate. But right now, they’re on the same path, going the same direction.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Baby wasn’t a good man, he didn’t lie to himself. He had been an accessory in some horrible things. But as Doc passed him the bottle of the detergent he put on a stool when he came in, Baby knew.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Baby wasn’t a good man, he was a decent man. He tried to do good for the sake of the powerless. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Baby knew, he knew that Doc was a decent man. He was not a good man, but he was a decent man. Baby’s faith was restored, Doc would look after him.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s1">Doc loooked after all of them.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"> </p>
  </div></div>
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